Tim nails it when he says we are living in the golden age of guitar, as there are so many brilliant products out there for both the professional and aspiring musician. Long May that continue!
That's a really cool instrument. One of the things I liked the most, which Tim showed off in the middle of the video, is the very, VERY distinct sound and character of each of the three pickup selection positions. They were more their own thing, rather than different shadings of the same basic thing, than most guitars out there. We all pay lip service to the idea of "wow, those are all useable tones with their own purpose", when in fact, I think many guitar players gravitate to 1-2 options and mostly ignore the others. Well with this one, those 3 options really are very useable. I could see myself playing all of them quite a bit. I also like the volume and tone knobs. Those layered stripes in effect give you a volume-tone indicator without needing numbers, or "Volume" written on it, or what have you. That's the problem with blank knobs like on a Tele. You have to tell by feel where you are on the control. You can totally do that, but I like a visual indicator. This has that.
Pretty much lower inductance P90s. The Faraday cage may reduce some AC hum harmonics, but also reduces the highs from the strings, as do the Steel pole screws. They may be low enough inductance to accommodate 250k pots, and they may have thinner wire which increases efficiency and S/N ratio. I'd be curious what the Gauss is at the screw heads with immensely powerful Nd magnets. Might be a lot of string pull. P90's also sound great in parallel.
I didn't like the aesthetics of that guitar, except for the knobs made of the leftover fiberglass, those are rad, and so I ignored the announcements about this guitar's creation. This video has totally changed my mind. Not that I will every buy a $3800 guitar, even if they weren't sold out! I love the engineering approach that Andy Powers took. There is so much vintage worship these days; it's great to see someone still trying to break new ground. Especially since most of those attempts die a fast death. It helps that his ideas genuinely seem to have created an improved product. Maybe things like the camshaft "device" bar and the neodymium pickups with faraday cage covers will make their way into wider guitar production and thus at a much more affordable price point.
Tim Pierce has a brilliant suite of amps/cabs, years of experience of recording the BEST tones and he has exceptional tone production that simply comes from his physical interaction with the guitar - all of that said this is an outstanding guitar with HUGE potential. I didn't hear a single sound coming from this instrument that wasn't musical and inspiring - it has a wonderful musicality to the complex overtones it organically produces. Andy Powers is going to face a potentially huge demand for this instrument - if only a company like PRS could team up to mass produce high quality versions of these instruments (under Andy's brand name ?) so that they could be available for us regular grunts in the musical trenches for around £ 3K :-)
Andy Powers confirmed; or at least shares; one of my theories about construction, and it’s impact on tone: The “passive” or “non-speaking” length of the string affects the tone of the vibrating length of string. I prefer reverse-headstock guitars (on my guitars that have six-in-line headstocks) for this reason. Instead of having the shortest length under tension, my lower strings have the longest length under tension. That has to help in keeping the low end from muddying out, right? The vibrating length of each string is still ~25-1/4,” but the total length of the string; from the ball end to the tuning peg; is stretched further and tighter the lower the string in a reverse-headstock.
Oh my lord. People need to stop calling incomplete shielding “Faraday cages”. If an aluminum casing did anything to kill buzz on single coils, it obviously would have been done already. The pole pieces are still picking up hum. Also, guitar builders keep assuming that what influences the sound of an acoustic instrument will influence the sound of an electric instrument. The pickups aren’t picking up anything from the passive string length.
Andy powers makes great instruments because he is great player as well . I have one his first BTO Grand Audition guitars acoustic, I would love to try one of his electric guitars .
Nice to see someone doing things a little differently and more creatively than most. Looks and sounds like a very well made instrument with innovative design concepts rather than just being a slightly different shape than or completely shameless clone of a Tele, Strat or Paul. Would have been awesome to get a look inside the thing from a how it’s made perspective but maybe those are currently intentionally, closely guarded secrets.
I’m sold. But what’s the cost for one of these masterpieces? Reminds me of the craftsmanship that the Frank Brothers in Toronto put into their guitars. Very small shop …built with a lot of love. Thanks for sharing Tim.
Always great to listen to someone who's passionate about their design. It doesn't matter if it's a coffee cup or a Formula One Ferrari.....the passion always comes through in the build and these things look and sound AMAZING! 👍👍
Very cool. It's interesting timing since I just bought a guitar that looks like a unique solid body but is, in fact, a semi-hollow, from Joe Till. It's a remarkable sounding and looking instrument.
I really agree with Rick .That guitar sounds incredible but it’s because the way you play it. I don’t think it would sound that great if I were using it lol.
Where can you buy one I'm looking for a new guitar so if you can send me some information I'd appreciate it sounds great course you got great equipment too and I'm playing in my bedroom through a pod and headphones I need a small tube amp what do you recommend
Deer Track fingerboard inlays? A little strange looking for me. Sounds pretty good, not holy grail by any stretch. I don't hear any hollow body tone coming through at all.... sounds like a Fender. It has some cool design elements tho.... I'm just not that knocked out.
tim just out of curiosity, what's your opinion on the very affordable and they sound pretty damn good Harley Benton guitars? Are they a crapshoot as to what kind you're going to end up with as far as the models they seem put together not too bad I mean they're not you know probably going to last at or anyting but as opposed to just some absolute cheap piece of crap that some people buy they seem to be pretty affordable and I see people playing them through good sound systems and they're not too bad.
If you can create a trem bridge that stays in tune and doesn't affecting tuning on bends then it probably is the better choice over a hardtail, functionally speaking. Some people just don't like the look of trems.
Before naming a brand, a Reverb and Google search should be done to see what noise is out there that will get in the way of customers finding your product.
Ath start of the video I thought no not for me. But by the end its clearly an amazing bit of kit. Just love that sound will obviously never own one but one can dream. If I win the lottery maybe..!!!
Amazing music demo of a designer engineer’s vision that blends the 60’s California car and surf culture with a crazy cool electric guitar. I gotta know, what pickups were in your version?? PF42 or FF42? Please let me know. Thanks for a great demo and inspiring design story.
